In light of the global pandemic that has changed ways of living and workplace norms, digital transformation has been brought to the top of many organizations’ list of priorities. Have you been able to tap onto the MAS DAG scheme yet?
It has been almost a year since the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Digital Acceleration Grant (MAS DAG) scheme was first introduced to the market, founded to support Singapore-based smaller financial institutions and Fintech firms stay competitive and remain resilient. In light of the global pandemic that has changed ways of living and workplace norms, digital transformation has been brought to the top of many organizations’ list of priorities. However, leaner teams might not have the power of scale that larger organizations do to accelerate their digital transformation effort. Here’s where the MAS DAG scheme was designed to provide targeted support for smaller companies, to enlist third party services and software to outsource their digitization efforts.
What Solutions are Eligible?
The aspiration for organizations to improve productivity, strengthen operational resilience, manage risks better, and serve customers better comes from the adoption of plug-and-play digital solutions. In other words, solutions which do not need to be built from scratch nor require investment in heavy infrastructure (e.g. servers). These include categories such as:
- Cloud services
- Communication and collaboration tools
- Compliance & KYC tools (including transaction monitoring tools)
- Customer relationship and engagement tools (including digital customer onboarding)
- Data-related services (including data warehousing, data automation, data analytics)
- Enterprise services (including HR and accounting systems)
- Marketing productivity tools (including customer sensing tools, insights generation)
- Office productivity tools
- Project management, software development and testing tools
- Security-related solutions
- Solutions to support alternative working arrangements, operational resilience, and BCP.
Horangi Warden
With the help of the grant, organizations would be able to address their cloud security needs with a CSPMCSPM and CIEM tool Horangi WardenHorangi Warden. The annual grant amount of up to USD16,000 can qualify organizations for the Enterprise tier that includes:
- Security coverage of up to 4000 cloud resources;
- Compliance automation supporting MAS TRM, PCI DSS, ISO 27001 etc.
- Unlimited support for product-related queries;
- Slack, Jira, GitLab Cloud/On-prem, Bitbucket integrations with SIEM support;
- Playbook and One-click remediationOne-click remediation;
- One-click and Terraform remediation;
- Custom Rules;
- IAMIAM Features; and
- Real-time threat detection
As Asia's leading Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) productCloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) product, Horangi Warden is ideal for organizations just starting out in the public cloud and are looking for an effective solution to strengthen operational resilience and manage cyber risks, keeping cloud environments protected against the latest security threats and compliant with popular frameworks.
Market Response
The MAS DAG founded during a time where the future was uncertain and companies were finding ways to work against market disruptions caused by the pandemic. While good momentum is observed in the first two months with 165 applications submitted to receive funding (a breakdown of 87 fintechs and 78 financial institutions), signs of recovery and vaccine adoption in major cities, there is no sight to the end of this pandemic. The Singapore Fintech Association lists almost 1500 organizations as registered Fintechs, from which lies the main pool of fintech organizations which are likely to be eligible for the grant under the Institution Project track. Eligibility applies to all registered members with under 200 employees, or alternatively, Singapore-based financial institutions regulated by MAS (licensed or exempted from licensing), with under 200 employees.
Businesses will be granted 80% co-funding of qualifying expenses, capped at $100,000 per participating entity, per project. The funding period is capped at 2 years from implementation.
For more information, businesses can find out more on the MAS website or apply under the Institution Project track can submit their application form to [email protected].
Take Advantage of Warden Cloud Security With MAS DAG
Can your organization benefit from an Asia-focused security platform for the public cloud that supports MAS TRM and MAS Cyber Hygiene compliance? Contact our solution experts for a free cloud risk assessment in just 15 minutes of a Warden scan. Complete the form on this pagepage to get in touch with us.
